Keep clear: No more coming to the city for treatment

PESHAWAR:

The K-P health department is on a mission to revisit every rule and procedure in order to improve the efficiency of government health facilities and reduce the burden on the city’s three teaching hospitals.

A new mechanism is likely to come through wherein tehsil and district headquarters hospitals will be barred from referring any patient to get treatment at Peshawar’s central health facilities. Department officials believe the ban will help improve performance of these hospitals. Those with minor problems that can be dealt with at the primary hospitals only, and will not be allowed to make the trip to the city.

“Around 20,000 patients arrive at Lady Reading Hospital alone every 24 hours,” a health department official tells The Express Tribune. He says the same is the case with the other two teaching hospitals in the provincial capital.

When contacted, K-P Health DG Parvez Kamal confirms the development, adding it will not only reduce the burden on tertiary hospitals but also help ascertain the shortcomings that compel patients to move to the provincial capital. “It will help us learn about what exactly we need to do more at tehsil and district health facilities so that patients receive medical assistance at their doorstep,” Kamal tells The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th,  2015.